Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation: History,
Politics, and Salvation (Teología de la liberación:
perspectivas, 1971) trans. Sister Caridad Inda and John Eaglson,
rev. ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988). Gutiérrez is one
of the most significant theologians of the 20th century, and this
work is his masterpiece. It helped spark the movement we now
call “liberation theology.” Gutiérrez had been working on this
for some years, in conjunction with his work with both the poor and
with the bishops of Latin America, sounding out how Vatican II
applied to the Latin American context. Gutiérrez, while not
unduly difficult, favors an abstract style, full of subtle nuance
and genuine eloquence.

Jon Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator: a Historical-Theological
Reading of Jesus of Nazareth (Jesucristo liberador.
Lectura historica-teológica de Jesús de Nazaret,
1991) trans. Paul Bruns & Francis McDonagh (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Books, 1993) paperback; Christ the Liberator: A View from the
Victims (La fe en Jesucristo: Ensayo desde las víctimas,
1999), trans. Paul Burns (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001).
For the last two decades, Sobrino has been the leading
liberation theologian writing on christology. This pair of
works are perhaps the most important of his career, and is
powerfully shaped by his long years of experience in El
Salvador.

Thomas M. Kelly, When the Gospel
Grows Feet: Rutilio Grande, S.J., and the Church (Collegeville,
MN: Liturgical Press, 2013), paperback, $30. NEW. Rutilio
Grande was a Jesuit who worked for the poor in El Salvador and was
assassinated in 1977. His death sparked Oscar Romero, the
bishop of San Salvador, to begin a campaign speaking publicly on
behalf of the poor and against the violence of the authoritarian
regime in 1980s El Salvador. Romero was, in turn, assassinated in
March 1980. This offers the first-ever book-length study of
the life of Grande in English.

Manfred K. Bahmann, A Preference
for the Poor: Latin American Liberation Theology from a Protestant
Perspective (Lanham, MD: University of America Press, 2005).

Dwight N. Hopkins
and Edward P. Antonio, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Black
Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). At last, a valuable introduction and
overview of black theology. The place to start.

Susan Frank Parsons, The Cambridge
Companion to Feminist Theology (Cambridge / New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2002). Feminist theology has touched
virtually every area of theology, from biblical studies to
historical theology to ethics and ecclesiology. As with Latin
American liberation theology, it is better to speak of liberation
theologies. A fine collection of essays that
surveys key topics & themes of feminist theology, including trinity,
creation, biblical hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, church and
sacrament, and eschatology.